When the Dynamo acquired Vicente Sanchez in the off-season, the message was that he may never start a league game.
A 37-year-old forward who made a name for himself as a goal scorer in Mexico and proved capable of contributing in MLS during three years with the Colorado Rapids, Sanchez left his native Uruguay in January to join the Dynamo as a veteran presence for the locker room.
If all he did was help the Dynamo’s young players grow up and adjust to a new team, he would have been considered a success.
Yet when it came time to plan for a difficult stretch of three games against Western Conference playoff teams in eight days, Dynamo coach Wilmer Cabrera penciled Sanchez into the starting lineup for the middle game – a potentially decisive Texas Derby in the home of the Dynamo’s fiercest rival.